In this Book

buy this book Buy This Book in Print
summary

In these critical essays Gregory Stephenson takes the reader on a journey through the literature of the Beat Generation: a journey encompassing that common ethos of Beat literature—the passage from darkness to light, from fragmented being toward wholeness, from Beat to Beatific. He travels through Jack Kerouac’s Duluoz Legend,following Kerouac’s quests for identity, community, and spiritual knowledge. He examines Allen Ginsberg’s use of transcendence in “Howl,” discovers the Gnostic vision in William S. Burroughs’s fiction, and studies the mythic, visionary power of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s poetry. Stephenson also provides detailed examinations of the writing of lesser-known Beat authors: John Clellon Holmes, Gregory Corso, Richard Fariña, and Michael McClure. He explores the myth and the mystery of the literary legend of Neal Cassady. The book concludes with a look at the common traits of the Beat writers—their use of primitivism, shamanism, myth and magic, spontaneity, and improvisation, all of which led them to a new idiom of consciousness and to the expansion of the parameters of American literature.

Table of Contents

restricted access Download Full Book
  1. Cover
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Frontmatter
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Copyright Page
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Contents
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Acknowledgments
  2. pp. ix-xi
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 1. Introduction
  2. pp. 1-16
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 2. Circular Journey: Jack Kerouac's Duluoz Legend
  2. pp. 17-49
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 3. Allen Ginsberg's "Howl": A Reading
  2. pp. 50-58
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 4. The Gnostic Vision of William S. Burroughs
  2. pp. 59-73
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 5. "The Arcadian Map": Notes on the Poetry of Gregory Corso
  2. pp. 74-89
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 6. Homeward from Nowhere: Notes on the Novels of John Clellon Holmes
  2. pp. 90-104
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 7. From the Substrate: Notes on the Work of Michael McClure
  2. pp. 105-130
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 8. Toward Organized Innocence: Richard Farina's Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me
  2. pp. 131-138
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 9. The "Spiritual Optics" of Lawrence Ferlinghetti
  2. pp. 139-153
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 10. Friendly and Flowing Savage: The Literary Legend of Neal Cassady
  2. pp. 154-171
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 11. Conclusion
  2. pp. 172-188
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Notes
  2. pp. 189-200
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Selected Bibliography
  2. pp. 201-208
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Index
  2. pp. 209-216
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Back Cover
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
Back To Top

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.